Nothing else

could be a better sunday evening with ARR performing live that too on a remote place along the East Coast!!!! Yup that was yesterday. ARR concert in MAARG Swarnabhoommi!!!! One in the series of JAI HO!!! concerts.

We drove all the way from chennai in our vehicle. We reached the place in time. The place was huge in terms of area. The place was easily able to accommodate 17000 odd people and never looked as though runnning out of space....YUP HUGE AND REALLY HUGE.

filling the tank and checking the level of pressure in the tyres, we drove our vehicle in high spirits :D:D. We reached the place sharp 545pm. The show was supposed to begin at 6pm. Whatever place the ticket we bought commanded, we were directed there. We roamed the place. Easily the place streched for few hundred meters. We went around the arena where our ticket permitted us to in search of the right place, to enjoy a nice view of the stage and a good screen!!!! Little did we realise we will never be able to fulfil our likes :(:(. The seating was so pathetic that no matter where we sit, we will not be able to have a good view of the stage or a screen :(:(

To top it all, people piled up chairs and sat on top of it while many stood over them. WOW!!! What a comedy, we came 90 odd km to witness all these priceless scenes. We waited patiently for the show to begin.

As we sat there, we realised, ARR is indeed a phenomenon. I have seen people of 60+ generation shun away from today's film music. BUT OILA!!!!! Many people who couldn't even walk had gathered to witnees ARR perform live!!!

It was around 730 when the proceedings began. We were treated well by some mortal on the stage!!! "On behalf of myself..." that is how words came out from his mouth and we were already laughing. Then came our ARR!!!! The much awaited concert started :):)

Kandhal Roajave was the first song to be rendered by Sadhana sargama and Hariharan. I was surprised why SPB was not singing it. And as i was thinking, hariharan forgot the lyrics and stareted moaning the tune...ya he didn't even give a decent hum!!! That let us all disappointed. Next came in ARR with athriadi from SIVAJI-The boss. True to its lyrics the song started off with a bang with the crowd joining with ARR. Strangely, the bgm failed to keep up with ARR or vice-versa i couldn't remember now. the lady rendation was another let down of the song!!!! By now we realised the Sound system was already screwed up!!!! YUP the main ingredients for the live concert were already missing and yet we stood there just coz of one man-ARR!!!!

PHEW!!!! the song ended. Then came JIYA SE JIYA. This was a perfectly sync by all. Except that many were not even aware of the existence of one such song!!! YUP they cannot be blamed for it, for the album was never advertised in this part of INDIA!!!!! That was immediately followed by a track from BLUE and the crowd turned BLUE hearing the tune for the first time. ARR failed to realise that he was in singara chennai and folks rarely cared to listen to hindi tracks.

This was followed by a track from Slum dog!!!! GOSH!!!! Though people never failed to applaud at the end of each performance, they had no idea what they were listening to and became a bit restless. By now an hour has passed by. ARR then performed with his piano on stage. This was well received by the masses and it was again a track from Slumdog. As soon as we neared the end of the track, ARR was joined by hariharan on stage. A few tracks in tamil language like tamizha tamizha and uyirea from Bombay were performed. Here too hariharan exhibited his talent by devaiting form the original masses to the dismay of the listeners.

Hariharan in continuation to the romantic mood, performed a famous track from Jodha akbar along with sadhana sargam. People became too tired of too much hind tracks as this was not expected in this part of INDIA!!!! just like an intermission, came the interruption by MAARG properties. They took centre stage to hand over the keys to the blessed mortals who had booked houses at this vey swarna bhoomi!!!! MAN, i must tell u, these people are either out of their mind or have too much money with which they could do nothing. This palce swarna bhoomi has its nearest city either 90 km away in chennai or 70km away in pondicherry. Even if u want to visit a cinema, u need to travel a good 50km!!!! WOW!!! What a place to live in!!!!

The president who initially started as "on my behalf.." took the centre stage. This time too, he didn't spare us. For given a chance the following were his lines, "ARR has put chennai on the map of INIDA, Chennai has been put in the map of INDIA by ARR". BOSS!!!!! The sentences meant same and we were enlightened when we heard this. For as far as we knew, chennai was in INIDA map for a long time now....he then went on " ARR has put INDIA on the world map." We could no longer contain our selves!!!!!

I dont know what were the intentions of calling the religious leaders of islam, christian and the hindu!!!! These people showered their blessings on our ARR. Well fine. But the master of the ceremony kept announcing that holy water from ganges, mecca and jerusalem was to be handed over to ARR. He kept announcing the same for nearly ten mins. I guess, it took that long to bring water from these palces!!! Finally when the water from these places was handed over, the MOC ended his sentence "the holy water is handed to ARR representing oneness".

A frustrated fan of the evening from behind us quipped "ya ya, ARR will pee into it and it will represent oneness". Soon some other great mind was given an opportunityvto vent his feelings. The following are the exact words," our sweat has no religion, our spirit has no religion, our blodd has no swaet"...YA YA even a kid knows, there is sweat in blood!!!!:):):) Soon he places a beautiful reqeuest that paved way for many males to take a chance. Yup here are his words,"now i place a request to u. irrespective of religion, please shake hands with all th eneighbours around u and them i love u". WOW!!!! We could see Romeos running behind probable Juliets and We were all in splits!!!!!

As these people took leave, chitra took centre stage and performed nenjinile (uyire) and kannalane (bombay). They were really good and crowd enjoyed it. Followed by it ARR in his usual style sang khwaja mere khwaja (jodha akbar) and maula maula (delhi-6). i dont know if ARR was disinterested yesterday!!! His voice did not have any soul and the songs were pathetic!!!!!

then came a respite in the form of maiya maiya from GURU. Though it was good, the crew did miss a few notes in between. People were really let down. Somewhere during the show before the break, kabhi kabhi (jtjn) was performed and was well received by everyone. Towards the end, ARR took centre stage and performed anda arabic(bombay) and followed by it was mustafa. Mustafa really took the crowd by storm. All the 15k odd people stood on their toes and threw their hands up in the air and swayed....WOW!!!! Even imagining it sends a shiver down my spine. That was one true moment we felt we were there, we enjoyed the concert....as mustafa came to an end, jai ho from slum dog was performed leaving no gap between the two tracks and carrying the same momentum and it ended with tai manne vanakkam the famous ARR track. All the while, crackers lit the sky in red, green blue gold and silver. Truly a beautiful moment...

All said and done, was the concert best!!!! NOPE if ARR plans to do the same he can terminate the series of concert now and here!!!! YUP with lack of singers and imperfect bgm synch and no spirit in his voice, seems ARR is too tired for a world tour now!!!! Atleast he should have realised people here like tamil tracks rather than showcasing his music prowess in hindi!!!